If you love true crime, and like to listen to all the stories. This is definitely for you. The Cecil Hotel is one of the most violent, and shadiest hotels in Los Angeles. After 3 years it was built in 1924, having 14 floors. In my opinion when I saw the photos I thought it was really nice, and luxurious at first. Their business started to boom in 1927, because it was located in downtown Los Angeles. Built with the intention of being a comfortable and polished spot for business travelers and Hollywood tourists to enjoy. A night at the Hotel was cheap so anyone could get a room.
Many deaths, and violence started in 1930. After many years
of the hotel being successful. The road around the hotel, “Skid Row” was developed into a home for many homeless people. Between 4,200 and 8,000 people in the United States have lived there. On Skid Row females should be the most careful. Drug deals, pedophiles, gangs, are on that street making everyone around it unsafe. Usually when they have enough money, they find somewhere that is cheap, and close, which is the Cecil Hotel. You would either have a to have no idea what the history of the hotel is, or you’re flat out stupid to stay there.
Two major serial killers stayed there Richard Ramirez, and Jack Unterweger. After they killed their victims they fled to Cecil Hotel. Rooms were cheap enough and no one said anything when they walked in with blood on their clothes. Which is crazy to me how they thought nothing of it. The hotel was a huge magnet of murders, and suicides. In total there were 16 deaths recorded in the Cecil Hotel. Former manager Amy Price, said that she would hear thuds, and shouting in the floors above. Which I find weird that she didn’t do anything about them. She also said that all kinds of people walked in looking for a place to stay, either being really crazy or a normal tourist.
In 2013 was when the hotel got a lot of attention. Elisa Lam, a 21 year old Canadian stayed at the hotel and later disappeared. Missing reports went out to everyone, and one video was too. The elevator video. It showed Elisa going in and out of the elevator. She was looking around like someone was after her. This all happened in the hotel. Many people believed that she was murdered, taken, or she even ran away. After searching for days in the hotel, and asking people.
20 days after she was announced missing she was found. Her body was in the water tank on top of the hotel. She wasn’t murdered. She had really heavy bipolar disorder and depression, she had to take four medications to treat it. She stopped taking it around when she got to the hotel, and her mind messed with her and told her that someone was after her. So the best place she thought was on top of the building and in a closed area, which was the water tank. This affected the water in the hotel and guests complained to the workers, and that was when her body was found. I and many people mourned her death, even still today.
The Cecil hotel will always be remembered as the hotel with so much violence and death. It is truly a place filled with history, and it always will be. I want to remind you to be careful where you stay either at a hotel, friends/ relatives house you never know what will happen. Just wanted to inform you on some true crime for the day. I advise that you don’t stay there. But if you do, remember anyone is let in.
Work Cited:
Berlinger, Joe. “Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.” Netflix, uploaded by Netflix, 11 Feb. 2021, netflix.com.
Wikipedia contributors. “Cecil Hotel (Los Angeles).” Wikipedia, 1 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Hotel_(Los_Angeles).
—. “Skid Row, Los Angeles.” Wikipedia, 2 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skid_Row,_Los_Angeles.
Barrientos, Selena, and Selena Barrientos. “Netflix’s ‘The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel’ Examines the Dark History of the LA Landmark.” Good Housekeeping, 13 Feb. 2021, www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a35458616/the-cecil-hotel-history-timeline-true-story/#:%7E:text=Best%20known%20as%20the%20%22Night,Hotel%20on%20the%2014th%20floor.
Baggs, By Michael. “Elisa Lam: What Really Happened in the Cecil Hotel.” BBC News, 11 Feb. 2021, www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-55994935.
Wikipedia contributors. “Death of Elisa Lam.” Wikipedia, 2 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam#:%7E:text=Lam%20had%20been%20diagnosed%20with,Effexor%20%E2%80%93%20to%20treat%20her%20disorders.